I am curious as why there are no moms in most (almost all) disney movies.
Sometimes they are barely mentioned and just written out or not mentioned at all.
I'm mainly talking about disney cartoon movies.(Like princess movies etc.)
Seems all have a dad or in some cases no parent at all.
I think the only one that has both parents is lion king.
I know this isn't earth shattering discussion (haha) but just wondering if others have noticed and/or knows the answer.
IMHO I think it has something to do with it being more socially acceptable to make Dad a dufous than for a Mom. And really if these Princesses had smart, strong, role-model moms and emotionally present dads they wouldn't need the princes to rescue them. And that would make for a fairly boring movie. 
IMHO I think it has something to do with it being more socially acceptable to make Dad a dufous than for a Mom. And really if these Princesses had smart, strong, role-model moms and emotionally present dads they wouldn't need the princes to rescue them. And that would make for a fairly boring movie.
This is great! I vote for this theory.
This is a huge pet peeve for me...I'm always saying the same thing every time I watch a Disney movie or even Hannah Montana on Disney Channel with my daughter. Heck, Nemo's mom got eaten. EATEN!!! I love Disney, but what about us mom's?!?! I demand answers Walt!!
Heck, Nemo's mom got eaten. EATEN!!!
Ahh! You made me laugh there! 
Many, if not most, of Disney movies are based on fairy tales which have no mother character, or the mother dies in the story. This automatically makes the reader/audience feel sympathy for the main character. Makes sense to me.
Walt Disney's mother died when he was 37 years old.
I found this article:
http://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/biography/long_bio.html
Probably the most painful time of Walt's private life, was the accidental death of his mother in 1938. After the great success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt and Roy bought their parents, Elias and Flora Disney, a home close to the studios. Less than a month later Flora died of asphyxiation caused by a faulty furnace in the new home. The terrible guilt of this haunted Walt for the rest of his life.
Huge PP for me too! I am sure it is for most mothers, but I agree with the previous statement, that the mother is generally the nurturer and caretaker, so that loss makes the hero/ine more vulnerable, more in need of either "rescuing" or "figuring out how to rescue him/herself." I suppose it's kind of anti-"dad"ist (haha I just made that word up), in a way...they are saying, the mother must be gone in order for things to get dire. I mean, seriously, would a MOTHER put up with the crap these characters, especially those blasted Disney Princesses, have to go through? Well, except Sleeping Beauty, they let her go off and live with the fairies.
My SIL likens it to the psychological theory of having to "cut the apron strings" and leave the comfort and protection of your mother in order to learn how to fare in the world on your own. The purpose of the stories is supposed to be that they HAVE to figure things out without the help of the one person who could help them: mom. And of course since it is rare for a mother to actually leave her children, she instead always has to die.
Blahdey blahdey blah, I still find it incredibly annoying. It's like, why can't they overcome these horrible hurdles AND have a loving mother, too? 
My grandaughter asked yesterday where ariels mommy is.
That got me thinking and I pulled out all our movies and I couldn't believe how many didn't have moms.
Fortunately, if you rent that Ariel "Beginning" movie (direct to DVD), you find out the answer to this question. She was killed by a ship, in an accident on the surface! 
Bambi had a mom...for a few minutes!
Cinderella had a mom... wait that was an evil step mother.
Snow White had a mom... No that was the evil Queen step mother.
Hannah Montana had a mom... That was just a dream sequence and it was a dead ghost of Brooke Shields.
I think I am starting to see a pattern here. Disney Mom's are either DEAD or EVIL!
A good share of the orphans aren't Disney's fault because the movies are based on classics.
Even if they had made up the stories themselves how would it appear if Snow White's own mother wanted to kill her or if Cinderella's mother made her stay home from the ball?
If the characters all have a perfect homelife they wouldn't have a story worth watching.
Bambi had a mom...for a few minutes!
Cinderella had a mom... wait that was an evil step mother.
Snow White had a mom... No that was the evil Queen step mother.
Hannah Montana had a mom... That was just a dream sequence and it was a dead ghost of Brooke Shields.
I think I am starting to see a pattern here. Disney Mom's are either DEAD or EVIL!
So you're saying Brooke Shields is evil? 
Many, if not most, of Disney movies are based on fairy tales which have no mother character, or the mother dies in the story. This automatically makes the reader/audience feel sympathy for the main character. Makes sense to me.
Walt Disney's mother died when he was 37 years old.
I found this article:
http://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/biography/long_bio.html
Probably the most painful time of Walt's private life, was the accidental death of his mother in 1938. After the great success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt and Roy bought their parents, Elias and Flora Disney, a home close to the studios. Less than a month later Flora died of asphyxiation caused by a faulty furnace in the new home. The terrible guilt of this haunted Walt for the rest of his life.
Well now that's just sad.....
I've always wondered the same thing as y'all. Since these are classics maybe it's because long ago many mothers died during or after child birth... I don't know just a guess...
Oh my gosh-I read a psychological "study" article on this once...i wonder where it was? If I think of it, I will post it. I think it was in a book for parenting...
Have any of you read the Grimms fairy tale of Cinderella? Her mom is a spirit in a tree, that informs the prince to look at the bloodied foot of the sisters shoving their now mutilated foot into the slipper. I think one cuts off a toe and the other cuts off her heel. Yeah I think I'll take the Disney version.
My DH read the real ones when he was in high school and we have a copy of Grimm's somewhere in the house. I think I like Disney better. Especially Sleeping Beauty. Ew.
Have any of you read the Grimms fairy tale of Cinderella? Her mom is a spirit in a tree, that informs the prince to look at the bloodied foot of the sisters shoving their now mutilated foot into the slipper. I think one cuts off a toe and the other cuts off her heel. Yeah I think I'll take the Disney version.
I really would love to find a copy of the originals because I've heard about them and think they'd be terribly interesting.
Have any of you read the Grimms fairy tale of Cinderella? Her mom is a spirit in a tree, that informs the prince to look at the bloodied foot of the sisters shoving their now mutilated foot into the slipper. I think one cuts off a toe and the other cuts off her heel. Yeah I think I'll take the Disney version.
I really would love to find a copy of the originals because I've heard about them and think they'd be terribly interesting.
If you can tolerate reading an ebook (isn't a blog or a forum like an ebook in some ways?) you can download Grimm's Fairy Tales for free from this site:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2591
Lots of copyright free books on that site!
I'll see your Grimm's fairy tales and raise you a Hans Christian Andersen "Little Mermaid." The witch actually CUTS OFF her tongue rather than the sanitized "voice in a seashell around the neck" story, the prince really does marry another which literally "breaks her heart" and her punishment is that she dies on the spot.
*pales*
OK, where's my Ariel book??!
It was written in 1836. Oh and yes, the Sea King WAS a widower too.
I'll see your Grimm's fairy tales and raise you a Hans Christian Andersen "Little Mermaid." The witch actually CUTS OFF her tongue rather than the sanitized "voice in a seashell around the neck" story, the prince really does marry another which literally "breaks her heart" and her punishment is that she dies on the spot.
*pales*
OK, where's my Ariel book??!
It was written in 1836. Oh and yes, the Sea King WAS a widower too.
aww ceshell, when I was a young girl, we had a set of books called The Harvard Classics, which contained the complete works of Hans Christian Anderson, among many other things. I think I must have read The Little Mermaid at least 100 times, and cried every single time. It was my favorite story. I liked Disney's Little Mermaid, but I recognized it was not the same story. I prefer the original.
A lot of people talk about stories being Disneyized or Disneyfied ...cleaned up and prettyfied so as to not be so scary. I remember when I was very small, my oldest sister took me to see Bambi in the theatre. I remember crying inconsolably when Bambi's mother was killed. No matter how "pretty" it was, that's still scary for a child. There was a movie called The Brothers Grimm (starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger) a couple of years ago, with somewhat original versions of some fairy tales. It was pretty good. And Scary.
Altho I LOVE Disney animation, I think I prefer the scary stories...
You're right, Mulan does! I saw this for the first time a few weeks ago. I am loving how the girls get stronger and stronger. In the earlier days, they were just these beautiful girls who were helpless and who needed the price to save them. But with the Little Mermaid on, they at some point save the man, too!
I read one time that mother's don't enforce strength and bravery much in their daughters. It's very much "Ahhh, you're such a pretty girl!" type stuff. So I have always been careful about that. I made up a song that tells my daughter she is "beautiful, strong, brave and smart" and she IS all those things!
This reminds me how some actress (possibly Cybill Shepherd..?) with daughters, would read them bedtime stories which she adapted by ending them... "and then she went to university, had a wonderful career then got married and lived happily ever after." I like that. 
aww ceshell, when I was a young girl, we had a set of books called The Harvard Classics, which contained the complete works of Hans Christian Anderson, among many other things. I think I must have read The Little Mermaid at least 100 times, and cried every single time. It was my favorite story. I liked Disney's Little Mermaid, but I recognized it was not the same story. I prefer the original.
Well I do know what you mean about that, but I still maintain that the original is waaaaaay too dark for my four year old. I think kids can handle that deep, awful stuff a little later (I too have fond memories of reading my original TLM...when I saw the Disney one, I remember thinking: wait, doesn't she die at the end...isn't the story a tragedy?" Anyway, I think I was around 8...or 10?)
In a way I do think that is the good thing about Disney: they have created a safe haven, a place you can go if you WANT the Disneyfied ending. You know if you open up a Disneyfied version of a story, your three year old won't end up in tears, with nightmares for YEARS. Who wants to read a 3-y.o. the original HCA The Matchstick Girl?? Sheesh!
Oh and as for Mulan: LOVE HER! I try to push her onto my DD every chance I get LOL. I just love the message in that movie. Not only does she not "have to be rescued" like the usual helpless females (even Ariel gets rescued at the end; Prince Eric has to kill the Sea Witch) but she is brave in the face of failure and adversity, and most importantly: she is being true to herself and NOT allowing them to fluff her into a mindless, made-up "perfect porcelain doll." I *heart* Mulan!
I do too Ceshell. My daughter wants to take Karate now because of her (Hi-Ya as she calls it ) and I am ALL for it. Strong girls unite!
I do too Ceshell. My daughter wants to take Karate now because of her (Hi-Ya as she calls it
) and I am ALL for it. Strong girls unite!
Yeah but it's no wonder that she's their least favorite "princess" since she's not a princess at all. It's a hard sell when ALL of the rest of them are foofy princesses.
I also noticed tonihgt after watching Bolt for the umpteenth time that Penny has a mother. Granted the majority of the movie is the critters...but it is what it is.
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